Baron shares how he approaches taking major risks, including moving to 5 countries on 3 continents, and the opportunities created by working in emerging markets, plus how those experiences enhanced his career in the U.S. He also explains why one should not pursue a mentor simply because they occupy a role you aspire to as well as the two key qualities he looks for on his teams.
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Lan Elliott (00:04):
Hello and welcome to its Personal Stories.
My name is Lan Elliott on behalfof its personal stories, and
today I'm really pleased to haveBaron Amou on with us, and Baron
and I have known about eachother for many years, but we
haven't really had a lot ofin-depth conversations, so I'm
really excited to do that today.
(00:25):
So welcome, Baron.
Baron Ah Moo (00:28):
Thank you, LAN.
Thank you for having me.
It's really a privilege.
Lan Elliott (00:31):
Absolutely thrilled to have you on, and you have had
an amazing career so far.
You're not done yet, but you'velived and worked in five
countries on three differentcontinents.
Could you share some of theinflection points of your career
and if there was a factor thatyou think.
Was important in your success?
Baron Ah Moo (00:55):
I think there's a couple of inflection points even
before my career started, whichwas the curiosity to travel
abroad and see the broader worldliving in Hawaii.
Growing up in Hawaii and being anative Hawaiian, it's the island
mentality, right?
Where you it's a village and youtake care of everybody else and
you get to.
It's very comfortable andfrankly very welcoming.
But then when you get you, youwatch television and you see
(01:16):
some people who don't come fromoverseas and the visitors, the
tourists and things like that,which got me back into
hospitality actually, was thewhole reason.
You start to be curious aboutthe world itself.
And so at 16, I actuallytraveled to Japan.
And then started my journey at18, went to university in San
Francisco and then just startedtraveling from that point on
(01:37):
seeing the world, Boston, Spain,Ithaca, New York and then really
traveling around the world frommy career.
And I think some of thoseinflection points were getting
out of my bubble, getting out ofmy comfort zone, and, taking the
risk of going to a country thatI don't speak the language.
And actually for, nine of thelast call it.
20 years I've lived in a countrythat I don't even speak the
(01:57):
language to this day.
So that's a bit of a, achallenge.
But I think that it's thathaving those people, having the
ability to do that and thenhaving the people that support
you in that and any particularfactor.
I think it's really just thephilosophy of knowing that home
will always be there.
Having a set of parents thatkind of, give you that, but also
know that you can be confidentin the fact that your skillset,
(02:18):
who you are and frankly how youcarry yourself will translate
into other cultures and otherlocations.
And so that really was a kind ofa marking point for me.
If you'll
Lan Elliott (02:31):
Yeah, you've definitely taken the path to be
overseas for many years, and.
It is incredible to decide tomove to a country where you
don't speak the language.
I moved to Brussels for threeand a half years where I do
speak a little bit of French.
I grew up with my parentsspeaking French at home, and to
go to a country actually where Iwas born and live there for 20
(02:52):
years and not speak thelanguage, but still be able to
get around it, it is really veryimpressive.
Baron Ah Moo (02:58):
And brave.
It's just, yeah.
And I think it builds characteras well, right?
You get a little ingenious ifyou will, or creative if you
will, to get things done and dothings.
And I think that's where Ireally always encourage, people
in our industry or coming up in,through the industry to do those
types of things, right?
Kind of push themselves.
So
Lan Elliott (03:16):
absolutely.
Now, like most people, your pathto success to where you are
today isn't a straight line.
And often we find that we learna lot from setbacks compared to
everything going perfectlyaccording to plan.
And I'm curious if you'veexperienced a setback that
(03:36):
taught you an important lesson.
Baron Ah Moo (03:39):
I think there's several, right?
And I think, but really the bigone has been that sometimes in
your failures, I think it, itsometimes it's beyond your
control.
And I think in a couple ofinstances where actually, I was
laid off, right?
I was fired and it wasn't foranything in terms of
incompetence but more along thelines of I wasn't the right guy
(04:00):
for the job.
As an example, in two situationsI was in a company came in, took
over my company that I wasworking for.
Installed their person as mysupervisor, as my boss, and they
basically just wanted their ownperson in that seat, in my seat.
And so there was nothing I coulddo.
I really tried hard, I reallypushed myself tried to meet the
(04:20):
deadlines and all of theexpectations.
And, after a while I actuallyhad a conversation with HR and
some of my, mentors, champions,people that I, I relied on and
they said, Baron, listen.
If this person wants you toleave, they're gonna get you to
leave.
And even HR said, listen, youcan fight this.
You can go through some of thelegal ramifications of what's
happening here, but at the endof the day, it's just not a
(04:42):
right fit and it's nothing thatyou could have done.
So I think that's one of thebiggest lessons that it taught
me was, in through that failure,sometimes you self-reflect and
beat yourself up about it, butat some point it's also time to
move on and you realize maybethere's nothing more I could
have done.
So it's really.
It is a learning experience.
Something that I think, I'vetaken through the rest of my
life and actually has createdthat that barrier of I gotta
(05:04):
work harder.
If somebody asks me a question,I can't just answer that
question, maybe I have to, tryto figure out what the next
question will be, right?
Just pushing myself to keep tokeep going beyond what is just
being asked of me.
Lan Elliott (05:17):
That is a tough thing to know that you were
probably doing a good jobbefore.
Before there was this change,but it's nothing really about
you and it is.
A lesson you learn along the waythat sometimes it's really not
personal.
It's really not about you it'sabout the bigger picture.
They're just looking forsomething different.
Or maybe they have someonespecific in mind
Baron Ah Moo (05:38):
and yeah, and a hundred percent because I think,
yeah, I think, Lena, it was thefact that, it just by putting
his own person into the chairthat I'm sitting in, it just
expedites things that he needsto do.
His objectives and goals thathe's made, promises to his
supervisor, hi, the, his board,whatever you want to say.
But it was really, it'sheartbreaking, especially when
you worked so hard and getsurprised by the fact that, you
(05:59):
are no longer being employed bythis company that you've given
your life to for a certainamount of time.
I think that, that's, and we alltake it personally, right?
I hope, it's self-reflection,but it is a lesson learned and
frankly has created the personwho I am.
So I can't really, doubt it,right?
I can't really fight it.
Lan Elliott (06:14):
Yeah, that's a great point.
You touched on it a little bittangentially, but I wanted to
get into imposter syndromebecause that is definitely one
of those things, the things thatgo on in your head, the stories
you tell yourself, and oftenwe're our own biggest critics,
and that noise can make us doubtourselves and I'm sure.
(06:36):
You've been in a situation likeyou were talking about, and the
self-reflection can then moveinto rumination where you start
having this cycle.
And I'm curious how you handleimposter syndrome today.
Baron Ah Moo (06:49):
I think those of us who come from the bottom,
right?
And what I mean by that isreally just started out,
hospitality does not really havea straight and clear path,
right?
I think everybody wants to be ageneral manager when you start
out in operations, but there'sno clear path as to how you get
there, right?
You don't get a degree ingeneral managers and then you
become the gm.
It really is about finding yourown path.
And so when you look at how farI've come, right?
(07:12):
And then you sit in front of.
350 people, all who are making,capital markets, institutional
investors, private equity, whoare listening to every word
you're saying and potentiallyturning markets and making
investment decisions based onthat, you reflect back on the
fact that I started as a valet.
I was a kid who, didn't have,didn't put on shoes until I was
(07:32):
like six or seven years old.
'cause I would run aroundbarefoot or flip flops most of
the time.
And from where I've come from,right all the way to where I am
now, you always think about whyare they listening to me, right?
What's the big deal?
What do I have to say thatnobody else is said?
But I think, going around thatwhole narrative, you also have
to recognize the work thatyou've put in and frankly, the
work that a lot of people haveput in to you.
(07:54):
To make sure that you'resuccessful.
And I don't think that's wherethe confidence really comes
from.
And that's where you put thenoise behind you, like you said,
or just the, yeah, I guess I'llcall it noise.
And you think about the factthat you've prepared for this
moment, you've done yourresearch, you have the
experience, the gray hair toshow it all of these things, and
you make that sort of call tosay, listen, I'm gonna make the
(08:15):
right decision.
I know I'm doing.
What I think is the best thing,and my comments will be fair and
unbiased, and it's basicallywhat I think and what I believe,
and those can be challenged.
But at the end of the day, thefacts will matter.
And I proud I've, yeah I've beenproud of the fact that I've been
able to keep that sort ofreputation of being fair and
honest.
(08:35):
Many times I've come across verydifficult decisions terminating
friends of mine, terminatingpeople that I've brought into
the position.
And again, based on nothingother than the fact that it was
probably best for the businessand not anything personal.
And to your point, other peopletook it personally, right?
And unfortunately, some of themhave not have, I no longer have
a relationship with them, sothat, that's difficult.
(08:55):
But I think imposter syndromecan be quickly.
Can quickly fade behind the factthat you are doing what you
think is right and you have abelief in it.
And so just understanding thatall the work that you've put in
has led up to this point.
Don't put too much pressure onyourself, but just understand
that what you say comes from avoice of reason and fact and
experience.
Lan Elliott (09:14):
Love that you had mentioned.
A bit about moving and living ina country where you don't speak
the language after 20 years, butpicking up your family and
moving to five differentcountries, different continents,
(09:36):
that comes with a lot of risk,not just for you, but with your
entire family.
And I'm curious how you approachrisk.
How do you think about taking abig risk either for your
business or for you and yourfamily?
Baron Ah Moo (09:50):
I think it's all about the data.
Obviously you can only benchmarkso much and then you have to go
with some kind of intuition or,leadership thought, right?
History doesn't always repeatitself, but it does give you a
good road back to what mighthappen.
Probability.
When we came out here to Vietnamit was a family decision to a
certain point, but I also feltlike the back end of that was
(10:12):
what was.
What is the worst case scenario?
What is our contingency plan ifit doesn't work out?
And again, it goes back to thefact that our family supported
the move.
They were obviously a littleskeptical, but they knew that at
the, at heart of hearts,everybody would do what was
right for the family.
And if it didn't work out, they,we could easily call back, for
us to come back.
And I think that's one of thelessons learned was,
(10:35):
understanding what the riskyou're taking, the reward that
you have from that risk.
Then preparing yourself for thatkind of, risk reward scenario.
And being able to contingencyplan that.
It's hard to really quantifyexactly what that risk will be,
especially when you're coming toemerging markets.
But the reward has beensignificant.
The challenges have beendifferent, and but at the end of
(10:57):
the day, a lot of people, whenyou're doing these kind of risk
taking scenarios, it's normallyout on the edge or on the
frontier of the spectrum, andthen there's not a lot of
precedent, right?
So then you're basically, youpeople will say, oh, you failed
and not this, that, the other,maybe somebody has a better
opinion or option that I didn'tthink about, but at the end of
the day was your choice.
And people should be able tojust either celebrate or
(11:19):
hopefully learn.
From the risk that I've taken.
So that's, but I always tell thepeople that I've mentored is
moving to another country.
Not speaking the language andjust following something of,
company or a position that youreally thought was interesting.
S several stories, both mepersonally and also proteges,
mentees of mine have done that.
(11:41):
And I can't tell you howsuccessful they have or how
rewarding it's been to them,whether it's, suc, how you
measure successes, both personaland professional.
I think rewarding maybe is thebetter word for that.
Lan Elliott (11:52):
Yeah, I'm just thinking that if you don't take
those big leaps, you're notgonna have those opportunities.
And looking at what's next whatcould be, and thinking about if
I don't do this, I'll never havethat opportunity.
And I've heard that people oftenregret more the things they
(12:13):
didn't do than the things thatthey did do that didn't turn out
the way they hoped.
Baron Ah Moo (12:18):
Yeah and I know that you said that a lot of the
questions that you get is how doI get from operations to
investment, right?
And that's one of the bigquestions that a lot of the
people ask me, and I can tellyou that I think it was being on
the fringe, being taking thoserisks, taking a role that maybe
I wasn't a hundred percent readyfor, but I did work my tail off
to, to try and understand whatthat role was, right?
(12:40):
And to be honest with.
AI now and the internet even Iwas working before the internet,
tho now researching and gettingdata is much easier than the
times when I had it.
When you had to buy a book or,rent it from the library or go
talk to, have coffee chats withpeople.
Now that information is readilyavailable so you can de-risk
your decisions a little bit ortake those roles on.
(13:03):
But it, it is about being out onthe edge.
And honestly if it weren't forthe country of Vietnam, I'm not
sure I would still be aninvestment, right?
Because of the fact that it gaveme a great foundation of,
because the market was also froman investment perspective,
relatively young.
So I learned all the basics fromnot just the.
Private equity, institutionalinvestor, high net worth
(13:24):
individual family side, but alsofrom the government side in
terms of what are theregulations and laws that are
applied to these types ofinvestments and the structures
that they present.
It was really interesting.
And it, so it gave me a greatfoundation such that when I went
back to the United States anddid something similar, I asked
these questions that some of theprivate equity guys never asked
themselves because they didn'tunderstand how the structure
(13:44):
was.
It's so compartmentalized and,I'm doing this part of the fund.
You do that part?
I do this part, but I looked atit holistically because frankly
we have to at that point.
So it was very interesting inhow, working in an emerging
market made me potentiallybetter prepared for working in
developed countries.
Lan Elliott (14:01):
Yeah, I do think being in an emerging market also
gives you the opportunity to.
Be the front runner to discovernew things, to become the
expert, at least from maybe backfrom where you're from to become
an expert because no one elsehas been there doing it.
But it can also give you manymore.
Opportunities that maybewouldn't exist if it was a very
(14:23):
developed market and there werea lot of people with your kind
of skills in that marketalready.
And so I love that call out ofbeing, taking the risk to be in
an emerging market, giving youthe opportunities that you might
not have.
For example, if you'd stayedworking in New York.
Baron Ah Moo (14:40):
Yeah, exactly right.
Exactly right.
And it has been a blessing,right?
It really has allowed me tocompliment my skillset and allow
me to do things that maybe Iwouldn't have done if I were
just specialized in, in NewYork.
Lan Elliott (14:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
One of our other guests, ScottBerman, mentioned that exact
path to developing a niche forhimself, and he found a niche
when he moved to Florida andbecame the expert because nobody
else knew, and that's how hemade his expertise as he built
it himself.
And he was the expert.
(15:12):
He was first there.
So I applaud you for going intoa new market and figuring it
out.
Now you had,
Baron Ah Moo (15:19):
yeah,
Lan Elliott (15:20):
go ahead.
Baron Ah Moo (15:21):
No please
Lan Elliott (15:23):
go ahead.
Go ahead.
Baron Ah Moo (15:25):
No, I was just gonna say, back in 2007 when we
started out on this journey of ahospitality fund private equity
hospitality fund we would go tothese hospitality investment
conferences around the region,which was still NASA and I think
it was probably 10 years in, 15years in no more than that,
these conferences were going on.
Whereas in the US they were,they've been going on now for
40.
Plus years, we we would havethis Vietnam panel and there
(15:47):
were several conferences thatwould have Vietnam panels, but
it would all be the same groupof people going, the before
panelists, all of us are thesame.
Two of us are competitors, andtwo of them are either a
consultant that we used or anattorney that we used, or an
accountant that we used.
So all of them would be the samepeople, which then, allows you
to develop that sort ofexpertise, if you will, because
you're using some of the best.
(16:08):
Understanding the law and evenhelping with the regulation.
So
Lan Elliott (16:12):
I love that you had alluded to being put in roles,
maybe you didn't feel like youwere ready for them, and that
often comes from having mentorsor champions who advocate for
you when you're not in the room.
How important is it to findmentors and champions, and how
(16:34):
does one go about it?
How have you managed to do it?
Baron Ah Moo (16:38):
I think you know there, obviously it starts with
your parents, your family, yourkind of core around you, that
gives you the confidence to goon and move it forward.
Now, there are times where.
I distinctly remember when myfather said, I don't want you
traveling to Spain because youknow what happens if something
happens to you?
I was 20 years old or somethinglike that, and I, I tugged at
my, my, my emotions because, myfather is my idol and my
(17:01):
champion, and he told me Ishouldn't go, and I said, I
really want to go.
I just want to figure out what'sout there and see it.
And ironically, this wasprobably a month before I, I was
gonna go, I bought my ownticket, I was ready to go, and
then a week before he called meand said, listen, I was wrong.
I support you.
And I, I just want what's bestfor you.
I'm just trying to keep yousafe.
But if you want to go to Spainand you know it better than I do
(17:21):
because he grew up on a littleisland in the middle of the
ocean, he's go ahead.
And so those types of ways, it'snot just a one way kind of
championship, right?
It's just actually, I.
Learning from each other andknowing that person has your
best interest in mind.
Even if it's a toughconversation.
So how you identify those peopleis they just float to the top.
They're willing to take a coffeeor a chat with you.
(17:43):
As an example, at CornellUniversity where I got my
master's one of the classes Ihad to take was food and
beverage, right?
And as there's a restaurantnight where you the class
actually runs the restaurantand, I had no interest in food
beverage.
To this day, I really have nointerest in food other than from
the finance side.
I have to know it, butoperations had no interest in
it.
And the professor that I had wastough.
(18:03):
He was tough on me.
He was German, and he reallyjust, beat us up.
Ironically, he's one of my bestfriends today.
In fact the person that I gowith and go and stay with when I
go back to Ithaca and we'vebecome very tight.
He's one of my mentors now justbecause he has a different view
of life.
And he's a wonderful man.
Family, man, everything.
(18:23):
And also self-made everythingthat you want to, you want from
a I guess a mentor, a champion,or yourself.
But he was, he was one of thosepeople who came out of nowhere,
right?
And became someone that youcould really call upon.
For those tough, difficultdecisions, both personally and
professionally.
And I think that's the otherthing.
I think you don't have to haveone to be both right?
If you don't have to have oneperson to be both personal and
(18:45):
professional.
You can have a professionalmentor, you can have a personal
mentor, and you, maybe youdon't, go between those two.
Sometimes you need those bothparties to be separate because
those decisions are quitedifferent.
I, what I can tell you is thatit's invaluable.
They'll come out of nowhere.
They'll probably come throughboth work and personal lives.
The people that stood around me.
For most of my life, and I wouldcall my sort of close circle are
(19:06):
probably people I've known for40 plus years, right?
The guys that I grew up with,everyone from a guy who I met
when I was four years old, to aguy that I've met from was 10
years old to 13 years old.
But all of those guys are peoplethat I could call upon and be,
and I think also from aprofessional standpoint, whether
my professional life, whenyou're high flying and charging
the way we do.
(19:27):
They also give you the groundingof, okay, listen, should you be
going to Vietnam right now?
You're having your second child.
All of these things, right?
It's a tough decision.
But actually they supported meon that, right?
They gave me their opinion, butsupported me regardless.
Lan Elliott (19:39):
I wanted to pull out two things that you said
there.
The first one is around findinga mentor.
In someone that maybe was verydifficult when you were taking
class with them, your professorthat you mentioned, how do you
turn that into mentorship?
(20:00):
And then the other part of it isyou mentioned asking people to
coffee.
That takes a certain amount ofvulnerability to go and ask
someone more senior to you to.
To spend time with you, and I'mjust curious about the process
of turning someone into amentor.
Baron Ah Moo (20:20):
I think it, it's much easier than when you and I
are growing up la I hate tosound like the old guy right in
the room, the email and themessaging and everything else
just allows you more points ofcontact that can be, that can
turn into actually aconversation.
Back in the old days, you'd haveto pick up the phone, make an
appointment, maybe even try tobe slick and, cross paths with
them at the coffee shop orwherever they were at, wherever
(20:41):
their car was parked.
That kind of thing.
And, almost stalking, I guessyou could say.
But I, I think that there wassomething in terms of being
fastidious about the people thatyou really like or, maybe bring
something to the table.
With my professor it was reallyinteresting'cause he you get the
sense that he was pushing youfor a reason.
And again, people like you and Iare natural mentors.
(21:03):
I think he's one of those aswell where he just has this sort
of aura about him.
Some people are made formentoring, some people are not.
And I think that's alsoimportant thing, don't force
yourself into a role where youthink, this person is in the
position that I really want oris doing something that's really
cool.
Some of them are not greatmentors, right?
As, as in sports, right?
Oftentimes they say the playersdon't often make good coaches.
(21:25):
And I think it's the sameprofessionally, right?
Somebody who's doing the jobmaybe is not the best person to
coach you on how to do the job.
I think there's something to besaid for that.
I really feel if you justbelieve that most people have an
altruistic sense in some way,shape, or form, that if you ask
them, Hey, I wanna go to, I wantto, can I buy you a cup of
coffee?
'cause I'm really interested inwhat you want to wanna do.
These informational sessions, ifyou will, that in itself will
(21:48):
tell you whether or not there'san interest in really.
Sharing with you.
Again, if it's something thatyou're very interested in, I
would look at maybe doing it twoor three times to try and reach
out.
But on the other hand, ifthere's somebody, another role
that you want to pursue or dosomething and that person is
not, that one person that youtargeted is not open to it, I
think you do have to move on.
It's one of those things, butit's it's come organically for
(22:11):
me.
I've been lucky and frankly.
A lot of them have come fromjust a long background and
history of, again, yourreputation is built over time,
and I think they you see it fromboth sides, right?
You see this person who'sconstantly been giving you
advice or even sharing thingswith you, and then on the other
hand, you have been anupstanding person with them.
Know they're, they can see whoyou've been and how, how you've
(22:33):
even personally grown up.
It, it shows the track you have.
And again, it's basicallyrepresenting your own brand
because the brand, your brand,your personal brand, and I don't
want to sound like some kind of,heretic or something like that,
but your own personal brand hasvalue too.
And you wanna make sure that'sexpressed appropriately.
'cause that's what leads youinto these conversations with
both mentors and mentees.
(22:54):
'cause they see that.
Lan Elliott (22:56):
Love that.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing that.
I wanted to shift over to whenyou're a leader, because
building high performing teamsis an important part of
leadership, and you've had to dothat a number of times.
I am curious how you approachthat either from when you're
starting from scratch or whenyou inherit an existing team.
(23:19):
What do you look for whenyou're.
Talking to people on your team,is there some characteristic
that you're searching for orinterviewing a potential
candidate?
Baron Ah Moo (23:30):
I think there's, when you're talking about,
leadership and high performingteams, right?
Normally they're, someone isputting that team together,
either yourself or someone elsefor a goal, right?
Or an objective, right?
Taking a step back and saying,okay, are, is everybody in the
right seat in the bus?
Are we all.
Going the same way, are thesethe right people?
And we've mentioned the factthat sometimes, people want to
put their own people on the bus.
Because it just makes the bus gofaster.
(23:52):
So that's always, in the back ofmy mind.
But I think really, what I liketo see in someone is just an
attitude of kind of.
Grit, as people say, I think oneof the TED Talks, the most
famous TED Talks is about, whatmakes one child or one student
more successful than another?
And really what they boiled itdown to quantifiably is grit.
Whether they can actuallysurvive through some of the
(24:13):
difficult times, get throughsome of those times.
And, you mentioned about,overcoming setbacks and things
like that.
I went to a very kind of highflying private school in Hawaii.
The one that the formerpresident went to.
I was in similar role in termsof, a little bit outside of my
comfort zone.
It was a, known to be a whitemissionary school.
And here are these brown kidsthere.
(24:35):
So it was really interesting tofit in there.
But then when you went outsidethe gates of the school,
actually more people looked likeme than inside the gates.
And so it was a reallyinteresting dichotomy of
learning how to work in teamsand creating teams and
leadership skills.
So if I had to say anythingabout, back to the leadership
role is, quantifiably, I'll lookat the timeline, the project,
the goals that are set.
(24:56):
And then figuring out whetherall the right people are on the
bus.
But if you're looking for sortof one or two items, one is
grit, right?
Is probably a skill that verydifficult to measure, but also
you can see.
And I think the second thing isjust willing to learn.
A willingness to learn, awillingness to adapt a.
A willingness to understandother people's point of view.
I don't want them to bejellyfish either with no
(25:16):
backbone, but I do want them tobe able to absorb somebody
else's opinion, yet be able tostill set their own opinion.
And then understanding that theleader of that group or that
team or the objective will makethe decision, which what they
think is best for that goal.
And that's the important thing,right?
And we may not all agree thatthis is the bright decision, but
at some point people have to asyou said, let it go.
(25:37):
Run it, run, let it run itscourse and I run into a lot of
people who oftentimes take thesedecisions very personally.
I used to do that as well,another learning point for me.
But you have to remember that inbusiness, most of the time it's
not personal.
Most of the time I will tellyou.
But it's more about what theythink is right for the company
or the group.
So that's where I would say,basically grit and a willingness
(25:58):
to learn and adapt.
Lan Elliott (26:00):
Those are great skills there.
You can take to almost any role,and that's incredible.
Thank you.
One of our favorite questions onits personal stories is what
advice would you give to youryounger self?
And I am curious, 22-year-oldBaron, I didn't know you then,
(26:21):
but what would you want22-year-old Baron to know?
Baron Ah Moo (26:26):
I, it's wrapped up in what I've been talking about,
which is, failure is actuallyinevitable, right?
Sometimes you're gonna fail nomatter what you do, right?
And maybe you're not set up forfailure.
Maybe you thought, actually, thehardest ones to take is actually
you thought it was an easy winor an easy victory and it was a
failure.
Those are probably the mostdifficult ones to take when you
know, and again, you go back andyou reflect on what more could I
(26:47):
have done?
What could I have donepersonally to be, and in some
cases there's not more you candone.
In other cases there was.
And then you have to learn fromthose.
But, knowing my 22-year-old selfI remember going to a job
interview in San Francisco andbeing surrounded by some very
high flying people.
People from Stanford andBerkeley and UCLA, and I was
(27:08):
just a small kid from theUniversity of San Francisco.
Looking around the room,thinking about, wow, how did I
get here?
What is this?
And I'm not ready for this.
But what I didn't think aboutwhen I was 22 years, 22 years
old, 22 years old, was the factthat somebody on, within that
company that put us all in thatroom thought I was good enough,
(27:29):
right?
Thought I could compete withthese people.
And so oftentimes I'm lookingat, oh gosh, imposter syndrome,
here we go again.
I'm not really good.
What did they see in me?
But in fact, somebody sawsomething in me.
And put me in that room.
So I thought that wasinteresting, right?
There's two sides to every coin.
And for my 22-year-old self whosaying, listen, failure's gonna
happen, move on.
And just keep trying hard,right?
(27:50):
Just keep your nose.
'cause doors will open up,things will happen, and maybe
even fate takes a play in whatyou're gonna do, which I think
has a lot to do with my careeras well.
Lan Elliott (27:58):
Back to resilience and grit.
I love that.
Baron, you've given us a lot ofreally fabulous advice, and I
love the perspective of someonewho has moved countries and
continents multiple times.
Do you have one final nugget ofadvice for our audience who are
looking to advance theircareers?
Baron Ah Moo (28:18):
So I've always tried to live my life within two
sort of mantras, right?
One is and I take it from a veryclose friend of mine.
One is to be a leaf.
He calls it be a leaf, which is,the leaf goes where the wind
blows it, but it never reallyfalls far from the tree.
It always has the DNA of thatoriginal tree that he was
attached to.
He or she, I should say, wasattached to.
(28:39):
But then it also plants its ownroots, right?
And then grows from that, right?
But never really losing the DNAthat it has.
So I guess my point there isthat you want to be a leaf and
just go where the wind blows.
You don't, if an opportunitypresents itself, maybe don't
overthink it.
Think about what you know thepotential.
Advantages are, and if you'reeven remotely interested, just
try it.
(28:59):
The thing you lose is time.
And as I get older, I knowthat's more valuable than
anything.
But I also think as a youngerperson, you have that
opportunity, right?
You don't have a family maybe,or you don't have those
responsibilities at home.
So if you, if it does not workout, only the only person that
maybe pays for it is you, right?
And then I think the secondthing that I would say is you
wanna be, sometimes similarly,you have to look at it and go.
(29:23):
You know what, why not?
Why not do it?
Why not try it?
And maybe, I don't know.
Everything, coming to Vietnam in2004 traveling to, to, to Japan
in 1983, going to a small islandoff the coast of Guam in 1995, I
believe it was.
All of those are to say that,did I know a lot?
Did I know exactly what I wasgetting involved in?
No, could I have done a littlemore research maybe, but the
(29:45):
people that put me in that roleor that opportunity had some
kind of faith in me, sawsomething in me.
And so I think you have toreflect on that and go, it's a
lot of pressure and maybe alittle bit of risk, but you do
have to say, okay, if they thinkI can do it, I think I can do it
right.
Lan Elliott (30:00):
I love that.
It's a wonderful way to end ourconversation.
Baron, thank you so much foryour time today and for sharing
your wisdom.
I really enjoy hearing yourperspective and it's so
different because you've been inso many different situations and
different countries.
So thank you so much, Baron.
(30:21):
I appreciate you being here.
Baron Ah Moo (30:23):
Lynn, and thank you for giving us the platform.
I know that the acronym DEI isnow, under attack.
You could say being changed, butI really appreciate you stand
standing steadfast andcontinuing to support those of
us who are coming up from adifferent way and really
allowing us to tell our story.
So thank you truly.
Absolutely.
Lan Elliott (30:41):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
And for our audience, if youwould like to see more
interviews with hospitalityindustry leaders like Baron, I
hope you'll go to our website.
It's personal stories.com
Hello and welcome to its Personal Stories.
My name is Lan Elliott on behalfof its personal stories, and
today I'm really pleased to haveBaron Amou on with us, and Baron
and I have known about eachother for many years, but we
haven't really had a lot ofin-depth conversations, so I'm
really excited to do that today.
(00:25):
So welcome, Baron.
Baron Ah Moo (00:28):
Thank you, LAN.
Thank you for having me.
It's really a privilege.
Lan Elliott (00:31):
Absolutely thrilled to have you on, and you have had
an amazing career so far.
You're not done yet, but you'velived and worked in five
countries on three differentcontinents.
Could you share some of theinflection points of your career
and if there was a factor thatyou think.
Was important in your success?
Baron Ah Moo (00:55):
I think there's a couple of inflection points even
before my career started, whichwas the curiosity to travel
abroad and see the broader worldliving in Hawaii.
Growing up in Hawaii and being anative Hawaiian, it's the island
mentality, right?
Where you it's a village and youtake care of everybody else and
you get to.
It's very comfortable andfrankly very welcoming.
But then when you get you, youwatch television and you see
(01:16):
some people who don't come fromoverseas and the visitors, the
tourists and things like that,which got me back into
hospitality actually, was thewhole reason.
You start to be curious aboutthe world itself.
And so at 16, I actuallytraveled to Japan.
And then started my journey at18, went to university in San
Francisco and then just startedtraveling from that point on
(01:37):
seeing the world, Boston, Spain,Ithaca, New York and then really
traveling around the world frommy career.
And I think some of thoseinflection points were getting
out of my bubble, getting out ofmy comfort zone, and, taking the
risk of going to a country thatI don't speak the language.
And actually for, nine of thelast call it.
20 years I've lived in a countrythat I don't even speak the
(01:57):
language to this day.
So that's a bit of a, achallenge.
But I think that it's thathaving those people, having the
ability to do that and thenhaving the people that support
you in that and any particularfactor.
I think it's really just thephilosophy of knowing that home
will always be there.
Having a set of parents thatkind of, give you that, but also
know that you can be confidentin the fact that your skillset,
(02:18):
who you are and frankly how youcarry yourself will translate
into other cultures and otherlocations.
And so that really was a kind ofa marking point for me.
If you'll
Lan Elliott (02:31):
Yeah, you've definitely taken the path to be
overseas for many years, and.
It is incredible to decide tomove to a country where you
don't speak the language.
I moved to Brussels for threeand a half years where I do
speak a little bit of French.
I grew up with my parentsspeaking French at home, and to
go to a country actually where Iwas born and live there for 20
(02:52):
years and not speak thelanguage, but still be able to
get around it, it is really veryimpressive.
Baron Ah Moo (02:58):
And brave.
It's just, yeah.
And I think it builds characteras well, right?
You get a little ingenious ifyou will, or creative if you
will, to get things done and dothings.
And I think that's where Ireally always encourage, people
in our industry or coming up in,through the industry to do those
types of things, right?
Kind of push themselves.
So
Lan Elliott (03:16):
absolutely.
Now, like most people, your pathto success to where you are
today isn't a straight line.
And often we find that we learna lot from setbacks compared to
everything going perfectlyaccording to plan.
And I'm curious if you'veexperienced a setback that
(03:36):
taught you an important lesson.
Baron Ah Moo (03:39):
I think there's several, right?
And I think, but really the bigone has been that sometimes in
your failures, I think it, itsometimes it's beyond your
control.
And I think in a couple ofinstances where actually, I was
laid off, right?
I was fired and it wasn't foranything in terms of
incompetence but more along thelines of I wasn't the right guy
(04:00):
for the job.
As an example, in two situationsI was in a company came in, took
over my company that I wasworking for.
Installed their person as mysupervisor, as my boss, and they
basically just wanted their ownperson in that seat, in my seat.
And so there was nothing I coulddo.
I really tried hard, I reallypushed myself tried to meet the
(04:20):
deadlines and all of theexpectations.
And, after a while I actuallyhad a conversation with HR and
some of my, mentors, champions,people that I, I relied on and
they said, Baron, listen.
If this person wants you toleave, they're gonna get you to
leave.
And even HR said, listen, youcan fight this.
You can go through some of thelegal ramifications of what's
happening here, but at the endof the day, it's just not a
(04:42):
right fit and it's nothing thatyou could have done.
So I think that's one of thebiggest lessons that it taught
me was, in through that failure,sometimes you self-reflect and
beat yourself up about it, butat some point it's also time to
move on and you realize maybethere's nothing more I could
have done.
So it's really.
It is a learning experience.
Something that I think, I'vetaken through the rest of my
life and actually has createdthat that barrier of I gotta
(05:04):
work harder.
If somebody asks me a question,I can't just answer that
question, maybe I have to, tryto figure out what the next
question will be, right?
Just pushing myself to keep tokeep going beyond what is just
being asked of me.
Lan Elliott (05:17):
That is a tough thing to know that you were
probably doing a good jobbefore.
Before there was this change,but it's nothing really about
you and it is.
A lesson you learn along the waythat sometimes it's really not
personal.
It's really not about you it'sabout the bigger picture.
They're just looking forsomething different.
Or maybe they have someonespecific in mind
Baron Ah Moo (05:38):
and yeah, and a hundred percent because I think,
yeah, I think, Lena, it was thefact that, it just by putting
his own person into the chairthat I'm sitting in, it just
expedites things that he needsto do.
His objectives and goals thathe's made, promises to his
supervisor, hi, the, his board,whatever you want to say.
But it was really, it'sheartbreaking, especially when
you worked so hard and getsurprised by the fact that, you
(05:59):
are no longer being employed bythis company that you've given
your life to for a certainamount of time.
I think that, that's, and we alltake it personally, right?
I hope, it's self-reflection,but it is a lesson learned and
frankly has created the personwho I am.
So I can't really, doubt it,right?
I can't really fight it.
Lan Elliott (06:14):
Yeah, that's a great point.
You touched on it a little bittangentially, but I wanted to
get into imposter syndromebecause that is definitely one
of those things, the things thatgo on in your head, the stories
you tell yourself, and oftenwe're our own biggest critics,
and that noise can make us doubtourselves and I'm sure.
(06:36):
You've been in a situation likeyou were talking about, and the
self-reflection can then moveinto rumination where you start
having this cycle.
And I'm curious how you handleimposter syndrome today.
Baron Ah Moo (06:49):
I think those of us who come from the bottom,
right?
And what I mean by that isreally just started out,
hospitality does not really havea straight and clear path,
right?
I think everybody wants to be ageneral manager when you start
out in operations, but there'sno clear path as to how you get
there, right?
You don't get a degree ingeneral managers and then you
become the gm.
It really is about finding yourown path.
And so when you look at how farI've come, right?
(07:12):
And then you sit in front of.
350 people, all who are making,capital markets, institutional
investors, private equity, whoare listening to every word
you're saying and potentiallyturning markets and making
investment decisions based onthat, you reflect back on the
fact that I started as a valet.
I was a kid who, didn't have,didn't put on shoes until I was
(07:32):
like six or seven years old.
'cause I would run aroundbarefoot or flip flops most of
the time.
And from where I've come from,right all the way to where I am
now, you always think about whyare they listening to me, right?
What's the big deal?
What do I have to say thatnobody else is said?
But I think, going around thatwhole narrative, you also have
to recognize the work thatyou've put in and frankly, the
work that a lot of people haveput in to you.
(07:54):
To make sure that you'resuccessful.
And I don't think that's wherethe confidence really comes
from.
And that's where you put thenoise behind you, like you said,
or just the, yeah, I guess I'llcall it noise.
And you think about the factthat you've prepared for this
moment, you've done yourresearch, you have the
experience, the gray hair toshow it all of these things, and
you make that sort of call tosay, listen, I'm gonna make the
(08:15):
right decision.
I know I'm doing.
What I think is the best thing,and my comments will be fair and
unbiased, and it's basicallywhat I think and what I believe,
and those can be challenged.
But at the end of the day, thefacts will matter.
And I proud I've, yeah I've beenproud of the fact that I've been
able to keep that sort ofreputation of being fair and
honest.
(08:35):
Many times I've come across verydifficult decisions terminating
friends of mine, terminatingpeople that I've brought into
the position.
And again, based on nothingother than the fact that it was
probably best for the businessand not anything personal.
And to your point, other peopletook it personally, right?
And unfortunately, some of themhave not have, I no longer have
a relationship with them, sothat, that's difficult.
(08:55):
But I think imposter syndromecan be quickly.
Can quickly fade behind the factthat you are doing what you
think is right and you have abelief in it.
And so just understanding thatall the work that you've put in
has led up to this point.
Don't put too much pressure onyourself, but just understand
that what you say comes from avoice of reason and fact and
experience.
Lan Elliott (09:14):
Love that you had mentioned.
A bit about moving and living ina country where you don't speak
the language after 20 years, butpicking up your family and
moving to five differentcountries, different continents,
(09:36):
that comes with a lot of risk,not just for you, but with your
entire family.
And I'm curious how you approachrisk.
How do you think about taking abig risk either for your
business or for you and yourfamily?
Baron Ah Moo (09:50):
I think it's all about the data.
Obviously you can only benchmarkso much and then you have to go
with some kind of intuition or,leadership thought, right?
History doesn't always repeatitself, but it does give you a
good road back to what mighthappen.
Probability.
When we came out here to Vietnamit was a family decision to a
certain point, but I also feltlike the back end of that was
(10:12):
what was.
What is the worst case scenario?
What is our contingency plan ifit doesn't work out?
And again, it goes back to thefact that our family supported
the move.
They were obviously a littleskeptical, but they knew that at
the, at heart of hearts,everybody would do what was
right for the family.
And if it didn't work out, they,we could easily call back, for
us to come back.
And I think that's one of thelessons learned was,
(10:35):
understanding what the riskyou're taking, the reward that
you have from that risk.
Then preparing yourself for thatkind of, risk reward scenario.
And being able to contingencyplan that.
It's hard to really quantifyexactly what that risk will be,
especially when you're coming toemerging markets.
But the reward has beensignificant.
The challenges have beendifferent, and but at the end of
(10:57):
the day, a lot of people, whenyou're doing these kind of risk
taking scenarios, it's normallyout on the edge or on the
frontier of the spectrum, andthen there's not a lot of
precedent, right?
So then you're basically, youpeople will say, oh, you failed
and not this, that, the other,maybe somebody has a better
opinion or option that I didn'tthink about, but at the end of
the day was your choice.
And people should be able tojust either celebrate or
(11:19):
hopefully learn.
From the risk that I've taken.
So that's, but I always tell thepeople that I've mentored is
moving to another country.
Not speaking the language andjust following something of,
company or a position that youreally thought was interesting.
S several stories, both mepersonally and also proteges,
mentees of mine have done that.
(11:41):
And I can't tell you howsuccessful they have or how
rewarding it's been to them,whether it's, suc, how you
measure successes, both personaland professional.
I think rewarding maybe is thebetter word for that.
Lan Elliott (11:52):
Yeah, I'm just thinking that if you don't take
those big leaps, you're notgonna have those opportunities.
And looking at what's next whatcould be, and thinking about if
I don't do this, I'll never havethat opportunity.
And I've heard that people oftenregret more the things they
(12:13):
didn't do than the things thatthey did do that didn't turn out
the way they hoped.
Baron Ah Moo (12:18):
Yeah and I know that you said that a lot of the
questions that you get is how doI get from operations to
investment, right?
And that's one of the bigquestions that a lot of the
people ask me, and I can tellyou that I think it was being on
the fringe, being taking thoserisks, taking a role that maybe
I wasn't a hundred percent readyfor, but I did work my tail off
to, to try and understand whatthat role was, right?
(12:40):
And to be honest with.
AI now and the internet even Iwas working before the internet,
tho now researching and gettingdata is much easier than the
times when I had it.
When you had to buy a book or,rent it from the library or go
talk to, have coffee chats withpeople.
Now that information is readilyavailable so you can de-risk
your decisions a little bit ortake those roles on.
(13:03):
But it, it is about being out onthe edge.
And honestly if it weren't forthe country of Vietnam, I'm not
sure I would still be aninvestment, right?
Because of the fact that it gaveme a great foundation of,
because the market was also froman investment perspective,
relatively young.
So I learned all the basics fromnot just the.
Private equity, institutionalinvestor, high net worth
(13:24):
individual family side, but alsofrom the government side in
terms of what are theregulations and laws that are
applied to these types ofinvestments and the structures
that they present.
It was really interesting.
And it, so it gave me a greatfoundation such that when I went
back to the United States anddid something similar, I asked
these questions that some of theprivate equity guys never asked
themselves because they didn'tunderstand how the structure
(13:44):
was.
It's so compartmentalized and,I'm doing this part of the fund.
You do that part?
I do this part, but I looked atit holistically because frankly
we have to at that point.
So it was very interesting inhow, working in an emerging
market made me potentiallybetter prepared for working in
developed countries.
Lan Elliott (14:01):
Yeah, I do think being in an emerging market also
gives you the opportunity to.
Be the front runner to discovernew things, to become the
expert, at least from maybe backfrom where you're from to become
an expert because no one elsehas been there doing it.
But it can also give you manymore.
Opportunities that maybewouldn't exist if it was a very
(14:23):
developed market and there werea lot of people with your kind
of skills in that marketalready.
And so I love that call out ofbeing, taking the risk to be in
an emerging market, giving youthe opportunities that you might
not have.
For example, if you'd stayedworking in New York.
Baron Ah Moo (14:40):
Yeah, exactly right.
Exactly right.
And it has been a blessing,right?
It really has allowed me tocompliment my skillset and allow
me to do things that maybe Iwouldn't have done if I were
just specialized in, in NewYork.
Lan Elliott (14:51):
Yeah, absolutely.
One of our other guests, ScottBerman, mentioned that exact
path to developing a niche forhimself, and he found a niche
when he moved to Florida andbecame the expert because nobody
else knew, and that's how hemade his expertise as he built
it himself.
And he was the expert.
(15:12):
He was first there.
So I applaud you for going intoa new market and figuring it
out.
Now you had,
Baron Ah Moo (15:19):
yeah,
Lan Elliott (15:20):
go ahead.
Baron Ah Moo (15:21):
No please
Lan Elliott (15:23):
go ahead.
Go ahead.
Baron Ah Moo (15:25):
No, I was just gonna say, back in 2007 when we
started out on this journey of ahospitality fund private equity
hospitality fund we would go tothese hospitality investment
conferences around the region,which was still NASA and I think
it was probably 10 years in, 15years in no more than that,
these conferences were going on.
Whereas in the US they were,they've been going on now for
40.
Plus years, we we would havethis Vietnam panel and there
(15:47):
were several conferences thatwould have Vietnam panels, but
it would all be the same groupof people going, the before
panelists, all of us are thesame.
Two of us are competitors, andtwo of them are either a
consultant that we used or anattorney that we used, or an
accountant that we used.
So all of them would be the samepeople, which then, allows you
to develop that sort ofexpertise, if you will, because
you're using some of the best.
(16:08):
Understanding the law and evenhelping with the regulation.
So
Lan Elliott (16:12):
I love that you had alluded to being put in roles,
maybe you didn't feel like youwere ready for them, and that
often comes from having mentorsor champions who advocate for
you when you're not in the room.
How important is it to findmentors and champions, and how
(16:34):
does one go about it?
How have you managed to do it?
Baron Ah Moo (16:38):
I think you know there, obviously it starts with
your parents, your family, yourkind of core around you, that
gives you the confidence to goon and move it forward.
Now, there are times where.
I distinctly remember when myfather said, I don't want you
traveling to Spain because youknow what happens if something
happens to you?
I was 20 years old or somethinglike that, and I, I tugged at
my, my, my emotions because, myfather is my idol and my
(17:01):
champion, and he told me Ishouldn't go, and I said, I
really want to go.
I just want to figure out what'sout there and see it.
And ironically, this wasprobably a month before I, I was
gonna go, I bought my ownticket, I was ready to go, and
then a week before he called meand said, listen, I was wrong.
I support you.
And I, I just want what's bestfor you.
I'm just trying to keep yousafe.
But if you want to go to Spainand you know it better than I do
(17:21):
because he grew up on a littleisland in the middle of the
ocean, he's go ahead.
And so those types of ways, it'snot just a one way kind of
championship, right?
It's just actually, I.
Learning from each other andknowing that person has your
best interest in mind.
Even if it's a toughconversation.
So how you identify those peopleis they just float to the top.
They're willing to take a coffeeor a chat with you.
(17:43):
As an example, at CornellUniversity where I got my
master's one of the classes Ihad to take was food and
beverage, right?
And as there's a restaurantnight where you the class
actually runs the restaurantand, I had no interest in food
beverage.
To this day, I really have nointerest in food other than from
the finance side.
I have to know it, butoperations had no interest in
it.
And the professor that I had wastough.
(18:03):
He was tough on me.
He was German, and he reallyjust, beat us up.
Ironically, he's one of my bestfriends today.
In fact the person that I gowith and go and stay with when I
go back to Ithaca and we'vebecome very tight.
He's one of my mentors now justbecause he has a different view
of life.
And he's a wonderful man.
Family, man, everything.
(18:23):
And also self-made everythingthat you want to, you want from
a I guess a mentor, a champion,or yourself.
But he was, he was one of thosepeople who came out of nowhere,
right?
And became someone that youcould really call upon.
For those tough, difficultdecisions, both personally and
professionally.
And I think that's the otherthing.
I think you don't have to haveone to be both right?
If you don't have to have oneperson to be both personal and
(18:45):
professional.
You can have a professionalmentor, you can have a personal
mentor, and you, maybe youdon't, go between those two.
Sometimes you need those bothparties to be separate because
those decisions are quitedifferent.
I, what I can tell you is thatit's invaluable.
They'll come out of nowhere.
They'll probably come throughboth work and personal lives.
The people that stood around me.
For most of my life, and I wouldcall my sort of close circle are
(19:06):
probably people I've known for40 plus years, right?
The guys that I grew up with,everyone from a guy who I met
when I was four years old, to aguy that I've met from was 10
years old to 13 years old.
But all of those guys are peoplethat I could call upon and be,
and I think also from aprofessional standpoint, whether
my professional life, whenyou're high flying and charging
the way we do.
(19:27):
They also give you the groundingof, okay, listen, should you be
going to Vietnam right now?
You're having your second child.
All of these things, right?
It's a tough decision.
But actually they supported meon that, right?
They gave me their opinion, butsupported me regardless.
Lan Elliott (19:39):
I wanted to pull out two things that you said
there.
The first one is around findinga mentor.
In someone that maybe was verydifficult when you were taking
class with them, your professorthat you mentioned, how do you
turn that into mentorship?
(20:00):
And then the other part of it isyou mentioned asking people to
coffee.
That takes a certain amount ofvulnerability to go and ask
someone more senior to you to.
To spend time with you, and I'mjust curious about the process
of turning someone into amentor.
Baron Ah Moo (20:20):
I think it, it's much easier than when you and I
are growing up la I hate tosound like the old guy right in
the room, the email and themessaging and everything else
just allows you more points ofcontact that can be, that can
turn into actually aconversation.
Back in the old days, you'd haveto pick up the phone, make an
appointment, maybe even try tobe slick and, cross paths with
them at the coffee shop orwherever they were at, wherever
(20:41):
their car was parked.
That kind of thing.
And, almost stalking, I guessyou could say.
But I, I think that there wassomething in terms of being
fastidious about the people thatyou really like or, maybe bring
something to the table.
With my professor it was reallyinteresting'cause he you get the
sense that he was pushing youfor a reason.
And again, people like you and Iare natural mentors.
(21:03):
I think he's one of those aswell where he just has this sort
of aura about him.
Some people are made formentoring, some people are not.
And I think that's alsoimportant thing, don't force
yourself into a role where youthink, this person is in the
position that I really want oris doing something that's really
cool.
Some of them are not greatmentors, right?
As, as in sports, right?
Oftentimes they say the playersdon't often make good coaches.
(21:25):
And I think it's the sameprofessionally, right?
Somebody who's doing the jobmaybe is not the best person to
coach you on how to do the job.
I think there's something to besaid for that.
I really feel if you justbelieve that most people have an
altruistic sense in some way,shape, or form, that if you ask
them, Hey, I wanna go to, I wantto, can I buy you a cup of
coffee?
'cause I'm really interested inwhat you want to wanna do.
These informational sessions, ifyou will, that in itself will
(21:48):
tell you whether or not there'san interest in really.
Sharing with you.
Again, if it's something thatyou're very interested in, I
would look at maybe doing it twoor three times to try and reach
out.
But on the other hand, ifthere's somebody, another role
that you want to pursue or dosomething and that person is
not, that one person that youtargeted is not open to it, I
think you do have to move on.
It's one of those things, butit's it's come organically for
(22:11):
me.
I've been lucky and frankly.
A lot of them have come fromjust a long background and
history of, again, yourreputation is built over time,
and I think they you see it fromboth sides, right?
You see this person who'sconstantly been giving you
advice or even sharing thingswith you, and then on the other
hand, you have been anupstanding person with them.
Know they're, they can see whoyou've been and how, how you've
(22:33):
even personally grown up.
It, it shows the track you have.
And again, it's basicallyrepresenting your own brand
because the brand, your brand,your personal brand, and I don't
want to sound like some kind of,heretic or something like that,
but your own personal brand hasvalue too.
And you wanna make sure that'sexpressed appropriately.
'cause that's what leads youinto these conversations with
both mentors and mentees.
(22:54):
'cause they see that.
Lan Elliott (22:56):
Love that.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing that.
I wanted to shift over to whenyou're a leader, because
building high performing teamsis an important part of
leadership, and you've had to dothat a number of times.
I am curious how you approachthat either from when you're
starting from scratch or whenyou inherit an existing team.
(23:19):
What do you look for whenyou're.
Talking to people on your team,is there some characteristic
that you're searching for orinterviewing a potential
candidate?
Baron Ah Moo (23:30):
I think there's, when you're talking about,
leadership and high performingteams, right?
Normally they're, someone isputting that team together,
either yourself or someone elsefor a goal, right?
Or an objective, right?
Taking a step back and saying,okay, are, is everybody in the
right seat in the bus?
Are we all.
Going the same way, are thesethe right people?
And we've mentioned the factthat sometimes, people want to
put their own people on the bus.
Because it just makes the bus gofaster.
(23:52):
So that's always, in the back ofmy mind.
But I think really, what I liketo see in someone is just an
attitude of kind of.
Grit, as people say, I think oneof the TED Talks, the most
famous TED Talks is about, whatmakes one child or one student
more successful than another?
And really what they boiled itdown to quantifiably is grit.
Whether they can actuallysurvive through some of the
(24:13):
difficult times, get throughsome of those times.
And, you mentioned about,overcoming setbacks and things
like that.
I went to a very kind of highflying private school in Hawaii.
The one that the formerpresident went to.
I was in similar role in termsof, a little bit outside of my
comfort zone.
It was a, known to be a whitemissionary school.
And here are these brown kidsthere.
(24:35):
So it was really interesting tofit in there.
But then when you went outsidethe gates of the school,
actually more people looked likeme than inside the gates.
And so it was a reallyinteresting dichotomy of
learning how to work in teamsand creating teams and
leadership skills.
So if I had to say anythingabout, back to the leadership
role is, quantifiably, I'll lookat the timeline, the project,
the goals that are set.
(24:56):
And then figuring out whetherall the right people are on the
bus.
But if you're looking for sortof one or two items, one is
grit, right?
Is probably a skill that verydifficult to measure, but also
you can see.
And I think the second thing isjust willing to learn.
A willingness to learn, awillingness to adapt a.
A willingness to understandother people's point of view.
I don't want them to bejellyfish either with no
(25:16):
backbone, but I do want them tobe able to absorb somebody
else's opinion, yet be able tostill set their own opinion.
And then understanding that theleader of that group or that
team or the objective will makethe decision, which what they
think is best for that goal.
And that's the important thing,right?
And we may not all agree thatthis is the bright decision, but
at some point people have to asyou said, let it go.
(25:37):
Run it, run, let it run itscourse and I run into a lot of
people who oftentimes take thesedecisions very personally.
I used to do that as well,another learning point for me.
But you have to remember that inbusiness, most of the time it's
not personal.
Most of the time I will tellyou.
But it's more about what theythink is right for the company
or the group.
So that's where I would say,basically grit and a willingness
(25:58):
to learn and adapt.
Lan Elliott (26:00):
Those are great skills there.
You can take to almost any role,and that's incredible.
Thank you.
One of our favorite questions onits personal stories is what
advice would you give to youryounger self?
And I am curious, 22-year-oldBaron, I didn't know you then,
(26:21):
but what would you want22-year-old Baron to know?
Baron Ah Moo (26:26):
I, it's wrapped up in what I've been talking about,
which is, failure is actuallyinevitable, right?
Sometimes you're gonna fail nomatter what you do, right?
And maybe you're not set up forfailure.
Maybe you thought, actually, thehardest ones to take is actually
you thought it was an easy winor an easy victory and it was a
failure.
Those are probably the mostdifficult ones to take when you
know, and again, you go back andyou reflect on what more could I
(26:47):
have done?
What could I have donepersonally to be, and in some
cases there's not more you candone.
In other cases there was.
And then you have to learn fromthose.
But, knowing my 22-year-old selfI remember going to a job
interview in San Francisco andbeing surrounded by some very
high flying people.
People from Stanford andBerkeley and UCLA, and I was
(27:08):
just a small kid from theUniversity of San Francisco.
Looking around the room,thinking about, wow, how did I
get here?
What is this?
And I'm not ready for this.
But what I didn't think aboutwhen I was 22 years, 22 years
old, 22 years old, was the factthat somebody on, within that
company that put us all in thatroom thought I was good enough,
(27:29):
right?
Thought I could compete withthese people.
And so oftentimes I'm lookingat, oh gosh, imposter syndrome,
here we go again.
I'm not really good.
What did they see in me?
But in fact, somebody sawsomething in me.
And put me in that room.
So I thought that wasinteresting, right?
There's two sides to every coin.
And for my 22-year-old self whosaying, listen, failure's gonna
happen, move on.
And just keep trying hard,right?
(27:50):
Just keep your nose.
'cause doors will open up,things will happen, and maybe
even fate takes a play in whatyou're gonna do, which I think
has a lot to do with my careeras well.
Lan Elliott (27:58):
Back to resilience and grit.
I love that.
Baron, you've given us a lot ofreally fabulous advice, and I
love the perspective of someonewho has moved countries and
continents multiple times.
Do you have one final nugget ofadvice for our audience who are
looking to advance theircareers?
Baron Ah Moo (28:18):
So I've always tried to live my life within two
sort of mantras, right?
One is and I take it from a veryclose friend of mine.
One is to be a leaf.
He calls it be a leaf, which is,the leaf goes where the wind
blows it, but it never reallyfalls far from the tree.
It always has the DNA of thatoriginal tree that he was
attached to.
He or she, I should say, wasattached to.
(28:39):
But then it also plants its ownroots, right?
And then grows from that, right?
But never really losing the DNAthat it has.
So I guess my point there isthat you want to be a leaf and
just go where the wind blows.
You don't, if an opportunitypresents itself, maybe don't
overthink it.
Think about what you know thepotential.
Advantages are, and if you'reeven remotely interested, just
try it.
(28:59):
The thing you lose is time.
And as I get older, I knowthat's more valuable than
anything.
But I also think as a youngerperson, you have that
opportunity, right?
You don't have a family maybe,or you don't have those
responsibilities at home.
So if you, if it does not workout, only the only person that
maybe pays for it is you, right?
And then I think the secondthing that I would say is you
wanna be, sometimes similarly,you have to look at it and go.
(29:23):
You know what, why not?
Why not do it?
Why not try it?
And maybe, I don't know.
Everything, coming to Vietnam in2004 traveling to, to, to Japan
in 1983, going to a small islandoff the coast of Guam in 1995, I
believe it was.
All of those are to say that,did I know a lot?
Did I know exactly what I wasgetting involved in?
No, could I have done a littlemore research maybe, but the
(29:45):
people that put me in that roleor that opportunity had some
kind of faith in me, sawsomething in me.
And so I think you have toreflect on that and go, it's a
lot of pressure and maybe alittle bit of risk, but you do
have to say, okay, if they thinkI can do it, I think I can do it
right.
Lan Elliott (30:00):
I love that.
It's a wonderful way to end ourconversation.
Baron, thank you so much foryour time today and for sharing
your wisdom.
I really enjoy hearing yourperspective and it's so
different because you've been inso many different situations and
different countries.
So thank you so much, Baron.
(30:21):
I appreciate you being here.
Baron Ah Moo (30:23):
Lynn, and thank you for giving us the platform.
I know that the acronym DEI isnow, under attack.
You could say being changed, butI really appreciate you stand
standing steadfast andcontinuing to support those of
us who are coming up from adifferent way and really
allowing us to tell our story.
So thank you truly.
Absolutely.
Lan Elliott (30:41):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
And for our audience, if youwould like to see more
interviews with hospitalityindustry leaders like Baron, I
hope you'll go to our website.
It's personal stories.com
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